About the Collections

The Minnesota Historical Society preserves and makes available a wide range of materials chronicling Minnesota's history and culture. The goals of the Collections Department are to collect and preserve; provide access and interpretation; and engage in education and outreach. The Collection includes:

approximately 250,000 objects;

6,000 works of art; 300,000 photographs;

50,000 cubic feet of manuscripts;

50,000 cubic feet of state archives;

500,000 printed works, including books;

1,245 cataloged moving images and 3 million feet of news film from KSTP;

the oral history collection contains 500 total interview projects; 40 video projects; and over 2,000 hours of interviews cataloged.